1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite audio-video apparatus in which a plurality of reproduce sections for respectively reproducing different recording mediums such as DVDs and videocassettes, in which information is recorded according to different specifications, are integrated into one body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a composite audio-video apparatus has an integrated mechanism including a DVD reproduce section and a videocassette reproduce section. Images recorded by a plurality of different recording systems are respectively reproduced by the respective reproduce sections and outputted.
The composite audio-video apparatus includes: a DVD reproduce section for reproducing image data recorded on DVD; a DVD control section for controlling the DVD reproduce section; a videocassette reproduce section for reproducing an image signal recorded on a videocassette; a VCR control section for controlling the videocassette reproduce section; an operating section (for example, a remote controller and a remote control signal receiving section) for outputting an operation command, which is given by a user, to the DVD control section and the VCR control section; and one image output section for outputting a reproduced image. Either an image reproduced by the DVD reproduce section or an image reproduced by the videocassette reproduce section is outputted to a display device such as a television set.
When the user sets a DVD in the DVD reproduce section and directs to reproduce the DVD by operating a DVD operation button of the remote controller, the DVD reproduce section reproduces image data recorded on the DVD and outputs the image data to the image output section. On the other hand, when the user sets a videocassette in the videocassette reproduce section and directs to reproduce the videocassette by operating a VCR operation button of the remote controller, the videocassette reproduce section reproduces image signal recorded on the videocassette and outputs the image signal to the image output section.
As described above, the composite audio-video apparatus includes a plurality of image reproduce sections. When the user operates the remote controller, a recording medium, which is set in the image reproduce section, is reproduced and outputted. In this way, a desired image can be provided by the composite audio-video apparatus as shown in, for example, JP-A-7-288873.
However, in the conventional composite audio-video apparatus in which the DVD reproduce section and the videocassette reproduce section are composite, when the apparatus is set in such a manner that an image is inputted from the videocassette reproduce section to the image output section and then outputted to the television set, an image of DVD is not outputted to the television set even if a DVD is set in the DVD reproduce section and DVD reproducing operation is conducted by the remote controller. That is, unless the image output section is set in such a manner that the image can be inputted from the DVD reproduce section to the image output section, the image of the DVD cannot be outputted to the television set. In this case, an image inputting source to the image output section need to be changed over from the videocassette reproduce section to the DVD reproduce section. In general, this changeover control function is provided in either the VCR control section or the DVD control section. In the case of the composite audio-video apparatus including a videocassette image record function, the changeover control function is usually provided in the VCR control section.
Therefore, when the user wants to view an image of a DVD in the above state, operation of changeover the image must be conducted together with operation of reproducing DVD. That is, when the user directs the VCR control section to change over the image by conducting operation of changeover the image with the remote controller, the VCR control section controls so that the image input source of the image output section is changed over from the VCR reproducing side to the DVD reproducing side. The image of the DVD can be then outputted to the television set and the user can view the image on TV.
As described above, in the conventional audio-video apparatus, not only the user must set a recording medium, which the user wants to view, in the apparatus and conduct reproducing operation, but also the user must change over the image so that the image obtained by reproducing the recording medium can be outputted. Thus, operation was troublesome.
In order to solve the above problems, it is possible to adopt the following method. The control means for controlling to change over the image (the VCR controlling section in the case of the above example) is provided with a function to analyze an operation command of the other control means (the DVD control section), and the changeover control is automatically conducted in the case of receiving the operation command of operating the DVD. However, it is difficult to put this method into practical use for the following reasons. The number of bits of data of the signal of the operation command of operating the DVD control section is different from that of the signal of the operation command of operating the VCR control section. Further, the timing of displaying “0, 1” (for example, the light emitting time in the case of remote control of infrared ray correspondence) of the DVD control section is quite different from that of the VCR control section. Therefore, it becomes necessary to analyze the operation commands of both the DVD control section and the VCR control section, which imposes a heavy load on the VCR control section (the microcomputer). Accordingly, this method is difficult to be practically realized. Since the types of these correspondence data have been registered, it is almost impossible to unify these two types of the operation commands into a single type of the operation command. For the above reasons, it is very difficult to make the control section (the VCR control section) of conducting the image changeover control analyze the operation command of the other control section (the DVD control section) so as to automatically change over the image.